CONTAINING LINKS TO 51991 STORIES FROM THE NETWORKS' NIGHTLY NEWSCASTS

TYNDALL DECADE IN REVIEW

TOP THIRTY STORIES OF DECADE 2000s

mins

Total

ABC

CBS

NBC

Iraq: war, invasion, combat

6445

1967

2329

2149

Israeli-Palestinian conflict

2424

754

813

857

Afghanistan fighting

2372

714

931

727

Hijacked jets attacks on 9/11

2339

711

761

867

NYSE-NASDAQ market action

1951

516

584

851

Iraq: Saddam Hussein ousted

1783

612

529

643

Iraq: post-war reconstruction

1745

466

452

491

Hurricane Katrina on Gulf Coast

1688

441

443

804

Crude oil, gasoline prices

1429

462

558

409

Wild fires in western states

1245

402

406

437

Iraq: search for WMD arsenal

1153

402

324

427

2000 election count, recount

1114

330

370

415

Influenza: seasonal, swine strains

1026

313

317

397

Healthcare reform debate

1024

350

370

304

Economy recession, recovery

1019

318

344

357

2008 Barack Obama campaign

860

293

290

277

Winter weather

842

287

267

289

Airline anti-terrorism security

811

249

259

303

Automobile industry troubles

797

242

262

292

Unemployment trends

789

262

264

263

Domestic terrorism prevention

788

272

230

286

al-Qaeda network targeted

714

241

230

243

Osama bin Laden manhunt

702

228

246

228

Iraq: terrorist attacks on civilians

687

217

234

236

Israel-Hezbollah fight in Lebanon

619

188

213

218

Christmas holiday celebrations

598

166

207

225

Tornado season

585

207

194

184

2008 John McCain campaign

579

180

180

219

Enron Corporation bankruptcy

546

175

179

192

Financial industry TARP bailout

533

193

167

173

Total Top Thirty Stories

39208

12158

12952

13764

FOCUS OF COVERAGE

mins

Total

ABC

CBS

NBC

US Foreign Policy

22025

7097

7345

7583

Federal Domestic Politics

23636

7469

7699

8464

Federal Electoral Politics

10853

3422

3739

3692

International (non-USFP)

25337

8956

8138

8244

National non-Political

31856

10666

10164

11026

Regional-Local-Domestic

32933

9839

12006

11087

Total Coverage

146643

47452

49094

50096

Condoleezza Rice was the unsung Newsmaker of the Decade. As National Security Advisor she warned President George Bush in the summer of 2001 of the pending terrorist attacks of 9/11. As Secretary of State she failed to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace. She organized the Councils of War that decided on regime change in Iraq. The invasion and occupation that ensued were, by far and away, the decade’s top story.

NBC, whose anchor Brian Williams was in New Orleans when the floods came, committed itself to covering Hurricane Katrina. For NBC Katrina was almost as big a story as 9/11. The greatest global calamity was the Indonesian tsunami (416 min).

Barack Obama was not the top election story. That honor goes to the 2000 Bush-Gore race that was decided by the Supreme Court. As NBC’s late Tim Russert wrote: Florida, Florida, Florida. Al Gore also failed to convert the news agenda to covering climate change. Global warming attracted scant attention (354 min v 1429) compared with the cost of oil’s carbon based fossil fuels.

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Each day, Andrew Tyndall blogs the three newscasts. He has been monitoring
television news for 20 years. He claims to be the only person on the planet
who has personally watched every single weekday network nightly newscast
since the summer of 1987. Other people go on vacation: he records them all
and logs the news he missed into his database when he returns.